This invention relates to a printer with a ribbon guide mechanism which guides the path of a print ribbon.
Generally, there is a printer which moves a printing head to a print position in the vicinity of a platen to guide, with the aid of the printing head, a portion of the ribbon exposed from a ribbon cassette to dispose the ribbon portion in the vicinity of a sheet of printing paper on the platen, prints on the sheet through the ribbon by moving the printing head, and performs a space shift and a paper feed with the printing head being placed at a release position spaced from the platen.
In this conventional printer, the ribbon is guided independent of the movement of the printing head, so that slackness may be produced in the ribbon by the movement of the printing head, which pulled the ribbon during printing, to the release position. The slackness is absorbed into the ribbon cassette using the resiliency of a spring provided within the cassette. However, in the cassette from which a large amount of ribbon appears outside, slackness in the ribbon is not sufficiently absorbed. Therefore, removal of the slackness becomes unsteady, in which case the ribbon may move zigzag out of its normal path or a jam may occur. In a printer of the type which guides and moves a ribbon with the aid of the printing head from the left end of a print line to the right end thereof to move the ribbon, the ribbon may be deviated greatly from its normal path in the vicinity of the right of the line once it is moved zigzag in the vicinity of the left end of the line, so that the printing head will not face the ribbon correctly, thereby causing defective printing.